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Profiles of Success #11 | Brandon Terhune

Brandon Terhune was coasting through life with a “good enough” attitude. But after listening to a few episodes of The Art of Charm, he realized that he could — and should — strive to be better. Here’s what happened when he came to Los Angeles for a week to see if AoC Bootcamp was all it was cracked up to be.

Profiles of Success highlights the stories of the men and women who attend our AoC Bootcamp or partake of our other programs. Sometimes we forget just how life-changing our courses can be. These stories remind us and, we hope, will inform and inspire you.

“AoC made me into a higher-value individual.” Brandon Terhune

In late 2015, a friend of Brandon Terhune’s emailed him a list of three podcasts worth listening to, and one of them was The Art of Charm. After listening to just one episode, he was hooked and proceeded to listen to all the Toolbox shows. “I realized that I had this default setting of thinking I was already ‘pretty good,’ whatever that meant, but AoC, in every episode, made me realize that I could always get better, and more importantly, that that was the point.”

Bootcamp

As you may have already observed in this series, many of our alumni were very struck by the video work done on day one of Bootcamp. It wasn’t any different for Brandon, except this was not an area in which he felt he was weak. “I hadn’t really come to Bootcamp out of concern for how I presented myself,” he noted (again, the slippage into “I’m pretty good already” mentality), “but in doing that work I realized just how really weak I was in that category, and I’m so glad for the opportunity. I’ve come to realize that ‘pretty good’ simply isn’t good enough. It is masking the truth, which is often, that ‘pretty good’ means ‘pretty mediocre.'”

Brandon also realized that all high-value individuals have two things in common: they take nothing for granted, and always are looking for opportunities to improve in every area of their lives. “This allowed me to orient everything in my life towards giving value, and that subconsciously adds a lot of drive.”

When I asked him about his fellow students, Brandon had nothing but positive things to say. “You know, I half-expected at least one person might be at least slightly negative, right? But everyone was positive. Everyone had such a desire to learn. We all built each other up. It was powerful.”

After AoC

Shortly after he got back from Bootcamp, Brandon asked for, and received, a promotion, in part due to techniques that he learned in Los Angeles (and in the podcast). He finds his relationships are better because he has taken the time to focus on vocal tonality and body language. “Just remembering to do body checks (when going through doorways, remember to stand up straight, lean back, smile, chin up) in concert with the proper mindset helps you get your foot in the door with new relationships, and gives the friends I already have the knowledge that they have my full attention.” He’s also just happier over all, which flows from the mission he has of being a high value person all the time.

“I can’t recommend AoC and their residential program enough. You will become more confident in everything you do.”

Are you tired of low value behaviors you might not even know you have? Are you ready to level up your life? Click here to learn more.

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Stephen Heiner was born in Singapore and moved to America just before his ninth birthday. He's stepped foot on every continent except Antarctica, served in the US Marine Corps, and is living the charmed life of a writer in Paris. He has a passion for running small businesses and storytelling. More than anything he enjoys getting people to think differently about the things they take for granted. Here at The Art of Charm, Stephen matches his life experience to our content to extract key points in written form for our students and clients to ruminate and act upon.
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